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Ovale Cutlery Collection by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Mass production has its place on this website and society in general, as a designer myself I take a lot of inspiration from these industrial products that now shape our technological world. Naturally as we’ve progressed as humans we have looked to manufacturers to meet our consumer needs. One DVD title I often revert back to is Objectified and is played on my TV or computer every now and then, especially the parts where Naoto Fukasawa, Dieter Rams and Jonathan Ive speak, but I also really enjoy when the other designers explain their creative processes. Particularly the brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, who have quite an intriguing relationship to say the least and are exceptional designers outright. In fact, there’s not many projects from these guys that I haven’t enjoyed, they take great pride in aesthetics and only work with the best design companies out there.

To name drop a few, Vitra and Magis, but they’ve also worked with Alessi extensively and have produced a second coming of their Ovale Collection, their first being a range of tableware launched in 2010. This cutlery is rather delicious I have to say and was too enticing to pass up. Scanning through these it makes me think of Sori Yanagi’s beautiful cutlery and the way that he handcrafted each prototype for many years to get the perfect form for the hand. Only once he was happy would they look at ways of getting the studios work out there and into a factory for production, even then they tried to use the best materials and methods at an affordable price.

On this particular collection by Ronan and Erwan the concept was to design utensils that were everyday but could also be used for special dinners and occasions. I definitely think they’ve achieved this with a fine, sleek, unusual flowing form, I’d also note that they look well-balanced and comfortable to use (although I’ve yet to hold them, so I could be jumping the gun!). I guess what’s restricting about making items like this is that you have to follow the rules that have come before, also you have to really think about the details and the necessities. This is really where you want the ‘less is more’ mentality. Hopefully you’ll agree that these are expertly designed, to see many more projects of this style/nature head towards the Bouroullec website linked below.